KYIV – Nadiya Savchenko once embodied Ukraine’s courageous defiance before Russia – a far superior foe that historically has tried to subjugate the Ukrainian nation and eliminate any notion of statehood and cultural identity. 

As a prisoner in the Moscow-instigated Donbas war at its outset in 2014, Ms. Savchenko went on hunger strikes and endured 709 days of brutal Russian captivity that never broke her indestructible spirit.